82 



GARDENING 



which are often combined in some sheltered spot, 

 and offer a pleasant retreat from the glare of the 

 flower-beds or trimness of the lawn. Many good 

 judges pronounce that statues are out of place even 

 in the largest garden, intruding on the sense of 

 repose, and competing for attention with fairer 

 nature. But, if the owner must have them, he 

 should not post them too conspicuously, and 

 should have them as little as possible at enmity 

 with nature. 



(2) The kitchen- garden, for the supply of fruit 

 and vegetables, is generally kept out or view from 

 the house, either by walls or a fringe of trees or 

 shrubs. This also should have good walks and 

 drainage ; but use is more studied than appearance 

 here, so that graceful curves are dispensed with, 

 and the ground is divided conveniently into squares 

 or parallelograms. When the case permits, this 

 garden is enclosed by walls of stone or brick the 

 latter to be preferred for fruit and should slope 

 towards the south or south-east, and must not be 

 overhung by trees. There are very good gardens 

 not favoured thus ; but the ideal kitchen-garden 

 perhaps should be a square of from one to two acres, 

 facing not the cardinal but the intermediate points, 

 81., BW., NW., NE. Every wall thus obtains a 

 share of sunshine, the south-east aspect is quite as 

 good as the south, and the south-west not very far 

 inferior, at least in the warmer part of England, 

 while the north-east aspect is much better than due 

 north for Morello cherries, or other hardy fruit. 

 Parallel with the walls inside are borders from 12 

 to 25 feet in width, parted by straight walks at 

 least 6 feet wide from the squares or parallelo- 

 grams forming the chief area, which are intersected 

 by paths at right angles, with two main walks 

 crossing at the centre of the garden. Very often 

 these inner squares, or quarters, are cropped with 

 vegetables or oush-fruit, while the wall-borders are 

 reserved for strawberries, early lettuce, kidney- 

 potatoes, or other dwarf growth which is advanced 

 by the warmth of the situation. Although the 

 produce of the kitchen-garden may be roughly 

 distinguished as vegetables and fruit, the two are 

 very seldom kept entirely apart, the general prac- 

 tice being to crop the ground with vegetables be- 

 tween the lines of fruit-trees. And it is still more 

 difficult to part the two by any botanical definition. 

 Popular usage must therefore be followed, though 

 even this is sometimes uncertain, the tomato, for 

 instance, being assigned by some to the fruit and 

 by others to the vegetable class. 



In common parlance, vegetables are described 

 as plants grown for culinary use. Of some the 

 esculent part is the root ; of others, the stem or 

 foliage ; of others, the bloom or its receptacle ; of 

 others, the seed, whether ripe or unripe, and with 

 or without its capsule. As an instance of each may 

 be given the carrot, celery, cabbage and cauli- 

 flower, peas and beans, of which latter the seed is 

 consumed without the pod or with it, according 

 to the variety. The vegetables chiefly used in 

 Britain are as follows, some attempt being made 

 to place them according to their importance, though 

 all households may not concur in this. The potato, 

 the cabbage-tribe ( including the hearted cabbage, 

 the colewort, the savoy, the broccoli, and cauliflower, 

 seakale, couve tronchuda, and others), onions and 

 leeks ; salad-plants, such as lettuce, endive, radishes, 

 &c. ; the leguminous i. e. peas and beans, of several 

 varieties ; the carrot, celery, turnips and parsnips, 

 asparagus, spinach, rhubarb, beet-root, shallots 

 and chives, artichokes (both Jerusalem and globe), 

 cucumbers and marrows, salsify and scorzonera, 

 horse-radish, and culinary herbs of divers kinds. 

 The tomato or love-apple ( Lycopersicum esculentum ) 

 has of late years become so popular, and is con- 

 sidered so wholesome, that it claims a high place in 



the foregoing list, which is not presented as exhaus- 

 tive. For all of these plants a soil of medium staple 

 is desirable, for a stiff clay is cold and too retentive of 

 moisture, while a sandy or gravelly land both suffers 

 from drought and affords little nourishment. The 

 soil which gardeners describe as a rich loam is the 

 best of all for their purposes ; and if it be 3 or 4 feet 

 in depth, with a substratum of gravel to ensure drain- 

 age, it will grow the very best vegetables, without 

 that excess of manure which is apt to increase the 

 size, but to impair the flavour. Space forbids us 

 to do more than cite a few general rules to be 

 observed in the growth of vegetables, and there 

 are plenty of excellent books on the subject. 



A heavy soil is much improved by the mixture of 

 light materials, such as sand, ashes, leaf-mould, 

 road-scrapings, or anything that tends to keep the 

 surface open and the mass more permeable. A 

 poor sandy staple, on the other hand, should be 

 made more retentive and tenacious by the addition 

 of clay or heavy loam or manures of a moist and 

 substantial kind. Whatever the soil be, it should 

 be moved deeply at every time of planting, but the 

 subsoil, if very poor, should not be brought up, 

 especially for shallow-rooted plants. All the cab- 

 bage-race, and nearly all plants that are grown for 

 their flower or foliage, require strong nurture 

 and plenty of moisture ; while many plants culti- 

 vated for the sake of the root, especially the potato, 

 are injured by reeking and heavy manures. Even 

 the onion, though it likes a rich bed, should not 

 have a rank one. Watering, if once begun, should 

 be repeated, until there is sufficient rainfall. The 

 use of the hoe between growing plants is most 

 beneficial, and the surface should be kept loose and 

 open. Let nothing run to seed, unless the seed is 

 wanted. It is better to give too much space than 

 too little, and the sequence of crops should be care- 

 fully considered, so that like should never follow 

 like, when it can be avoided. If it cannot be 

 avoided, the ground should be deeply turned over, 

 and plenty of fresh nourishment supplied. In 

 planting, let the fibrous roots be spread well, and 

 the soil made firm round the stem or collar. 

 Whether the crop is sown or planted, the drills or 

 rows should be so arranged that the sunshine may 

 pass along rather than across them, and few plants 

 come to perfection under trees even in the brightest 

 summers. 



Fruit, which forms an important part of kitchen- 

 garden produce, is ranged in three classes gener- 

 ally, according to its mode of growth, whether 

 on plant, or bush, or tree. Of plant or ground 

 fruit we have chiefly the strawberry and the melon. 

 The latter is rather a subject for cultivation under 

 glass although in warm spots and fine summers 

 the hardier sorts may succeed in the open ; but the 

 strawberry is to be found in almost every kitchen- 

 garden, a universal favourite, and not difficult of 

 culture if the right kinds be selected. A sunny 

 wall-border deeply dug, and then trodden firm, if 

 the soil be light, is the best position for the early 

 kinds. The distance between the plants is 

 governed by the vigour of the growth, but the 

 rows should generally be two feet apart, or even 

 three, when the growth is very strong. The beds 

 should be renewed every second or third year, 

 according to the constitution of the kind. Prob- 

 ably this .fine fruit takes its name, not (as is 

 often supposed ) from the use of straw to keep it 

 clean, but from the way in which the berries, 

 having but a slender footstalk, are strewn or 

 strawn by their weight upon the ground. 



Of bush-fruit the most important are currants, 

 gooseberries, and raspberries, the former two being 

 raised from cuttings, and the last from suckers. 

 Raspberries delight in a rich and heavy soil, and a 

 place where no drought can reach them. The black 



